This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
Some materials are baled to facilitate storage and transport. For example, stalks, leaves, grasses, etc. are compacted and bound into a bale to be transported from a farm to a biomass processing plant for the production of ethanol or other product.
The bale is typically broken down or reduced before the materials in the bale can be processed. For example, the stalks, leaves, grasses, etc. in the bale are typically separated from other portions of the bale for cleaning, exposure to chemical processes, etc. The materials can also be cut, chopped, or otherwise reduced for facilitating these processes.
In some cases, the bales are bound by string, rope, cords, webbing, etc. Typically, these bindings are manually cut and removed from the bale, and then the bale is separated manually (e.g., using a pitchfork or other similar tool) and loaded into a chopper or other machine manually. These manual methods can be labor intensive and inefficient.